Chapter 3 Exploratory analysis

Here you can check data fields and fields descriptions for all variables appearing in the dataset

Variables related with the trade process:

  • control_number: It represents a unique individual shipment processed by the USFWS.
  • quantity: It represents the numeric quantity of the wildlife produc
  • unit: It represents the unit for the numeric quantity
  • import_export: It represents whether the shipment is an (I)mport or (E)xport
  • action: Action taken by USFWS on import ((C)leared/(R)efused)
  • shipment_date: Full date when shipment arrived
  • shipment_year: Year when the shipment arrived (derived from “shiptment_year”)
  • disposition: Fate of the import
  • disposition_date: Full date when disposition occurred
  • disposition_year: Year when disposition occurred (derived from “disposition_date”)

Variables related with the countries:

  • country_origin: It represents the code for the country of origin of the wildlife product
  • country_imp_exp: It represents the code for the country to/from which the wildlife product is shipped
  • port: It represents the port or region of shipment entry
  • us_co: It represents the US party of the shipment
  • foreign_co: It represents the foreign party of the shipment

Variables related with the product:

  • description: It represents the type/form of the wildlife product
  • value: It represents the reported value of the wildlife product in US dollars
  • purpose: It represents the reason the wildlife product is being imported
  • source: It represents the type of source within the origin country (e.g., wild, bred)
  • species_code: It represents the USFWS code for the wildlife product
  • taxa: It represents the USFWS-derived broad taxonomic categorization
  • class: It represents the EHA-derived class-level taxonomic designation
  • genus: It represents the Genus (or higher-level taxonomic name) of the wildlife product
  • species: It represents species of the wildlife product
  • subspecies: It represents subspecies of the wildlife product
  • specific_name: It represents a specific common name for the wildlife product
  • generic_name: It represents a general common name for the wildlife product

3.4 More data cleaning after exploratory analysis

Let’s exclude from the analysis those descriptions with less than 10 instances. We reduce the number of descriptions from 88 to 78

Let’s exclude from the analysis those species with less than 10 instances. We reduce the number of species from 8,088 to 6,426